{"id":6525,"date":"2018-01-23T08:58:33","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T07:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=6525"},"modified":"2018-01-23T09:03:56","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T08:03:56","slug":"russian-rifle-raid-reveals-ravenous-reptile-reds-responsible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/6525\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Rifle Raid Reveals Ravenous Reptile, Reds Responsible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via JuliaM<\/a>, this story from Russia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Russian police searching for illegal weapons in a St Petersburg house faced a scaly surprise in the basement: a two-metre (6.5ft) Nile crocodile.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where the hell did they get it from in the first place? I’ve been to Saint Petersburg, and one thing you don’t see among those strange creatures basking in the mud along the Neva river or the fountains at Peterhof are Nile crocodiles.<\/p>\n

Police said the reptile did not cause any injuries – but now they must find a new home for it. Russian media say the house is used by a nationalist group.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With a penchant for Lacoste?<\/p>\n

A stockpile of illegal arms was found in the raid, in the city’s Peterhof suburb, RIA Novosti news reports.<\/p>\n

It included explosive devices and copies of Kalashnikov assault rifles.<\/p>\n

A 40-year-old man arrested in November is suspected of illegal possession of weapons.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I admit this is some way outside my line of work, but I reckon if I was assembling illegal weapons in my basement I’d find the presence of a large crocodile somewhat distracting.<\/p>\n

The St Petersburg news website Fontanka says the property houses a “patriotic youth militia” called Red Star (“Krasnaya Zvezda” in Russian).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Red Star doesn’t sound very nationalistic, does it? More Communist, I’d say.<\/p>\n

The crocodile was living in a pool that had been dug into the concrete floor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I want to know what it ate. Small children? Putin’s enemies? So many questions. It’s at times like this when I mourn the death of traditional journalism.<\/p>\n

Leningrad Zoo says it has no extra space to take it in.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Aw. I expect it’ll remain in Saint Petersburg, albeit in the form of a handbag in the window of a shop on Nevskiy Prospekt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via JuliaM, this story from Russia: Russian police searching for illegal weapons in a St Petersburg house faced a scaly surprise in the basement: a two-metre (6.5ft) Nile crocodile. Where the hell did they get it from in the first … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6525"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6528,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525\/revisions\/6528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}